celebrate. decorate. create.

Category Archives: Uncategorized

I went to the Rose Bowl Flea Market a couple of weeks back. The Flea Market is held every second Sunday of the month rain or shine. It’s in Pasadena, California so it’s mostly shine. In fact, even in winter I wear sunscreen and bring a big bottle of water. At the flea I was inspired and managed to purchase almost more than I can carry. Below are some photos proving I’m no photographer–but fun stuff anyway!

Hi. Under what? Underpaper…paper you put under your journal page that you’re working on to protect your desk and the pages under the page you were working on. I am currently using 12×12 deli paper as it works as a nice size protector. Once it has been used a bunch it can be pretty interesting. Admittedly, sometimes it’s a muddy, crumpled mess, but sometimes, the ink sprays, acrylic paint, watercolor and modeling paste create some striking underpaper.

All of the circles on the two page spread below are hand cut from underpaper. You may not be able to see the texture but all the white on the circles is modeling paste. There is also an awesome shimmer. I glued the colorful pink and orange circles down with a glue stick. Then I proceeded to stamp, spray and flick black paint all over the pages. A true mixed media collage.

As I was unwrapping my new Prima water colors I thought the wrappings looked like chiclet wrappings. For those that have never been to Mexico, Chiclet are the little bright-colored squares of gum sold on the street.

I created this “Reflection” tag during the 2016 DLP Un-Planner week 5. I loved how the black tag came together w a little spritz of ink, some collage items and a paper bag pocket. I have always liked my art, journal pages, and tags to have interactive aspects. And I just read pockets were trendy–I am a trendy girl.

I added the tag to the back of a January Week page that I had previously added some paper stash collage pieces too. I love how my journal planner is a stress free, quirky documentation book.

However, it is already full and I’m less than 2 months into 2016. Am I scaling back? No way, I’m adding more layers!!!!

Pancake Day, also called Shrove Tuesday, Fat Tuesday and Mardi Gras (which is French for “Fat Tuesday”), is the last day of feasting before Lent begins on Ash Wednesday. It’s called so due to the tradition of eating pancakes on the day. This tradition comes from a time where any rich foods were eaten on the day before Lent, and fasting begins.

It was Christmas in July last week at my home. I was inspired by Tim Holtz July tag with the plaid but wasn’t feeling like I really wanted to create a summer tag. Then when I was searching for a piece of scrap of paper for another project I came across this plaid paper. I decided it was going to be Christmas in July. I hope you enjoy a little holiday in your hot summer. I hope you enjoy a little holiday in your hot summer. Thanks!

Hi. Easter messed me up. That statement is not meant to be blasphemous nor an attack on Easter itself. Rather, I wanted to drop my exciting new idea on April 1, 2015 as it was the beginning of the month and it seemed the right day to drop a challenge. But I aslo had all these Easter ideas and projects that I wanted to share and it just seemed foolish to have 12 posts in one week. Not that people don’t do it all the time, I just don’t have the bandwidth to do such.

So here is my hat…

Here is a ring…

I am officially tossing my hat into the Art Challenge ring! Yippee! I challenge myself to other artists challenges ( I have taken on many art challenges designed by others. Some are weekly like the 2015 Documented Life Project, Life Book or monthly like Tim Holtz’s 12 Tags of 2013,14,15) all the time to keep my art fresh and my skills strong. Plus as I am an avid skill collector I love to learn. New Techniques. The thing I like about challenges whether they are personal or shared, or are created for art or fitness or financial or whatever is that they often provide a paradigm shift or at least a shift in focus (isn’t that the same thing?). I find that during the month that I am working on my Triumvirate Art Challenge (Should I call it Trish’s Triumvirate Art Challenge? seems a little egocentric but then if I weren’t sharing it on my blog I would be calling it “My Personal Art Challenge.) I am thinking of ways to incorporate the techniques in most every piece I create. Often times I don’t use all three techniques but the techniques are at the forefront as I am creating. It keeps my creating fresh.

So, since I have been challenging myself for years (one year I challenged myself to a banner every month; one year it was an art journal page every week, etc.) I thought I would extend my challenge opportunity to others. This year I have a more complex monthly challenge. Drum roll, please…

I picked three of my art/craft books by three different authors at the beginning of the year (I will share the book titles and authors in December). I randomly open each book to a page. So, I have three random techniques that have nothing to do with each other. And I have three techniques to incorporate into my art during any given month. Pretty fun!

So for April, the challenge is an interesting triumvirate mix:

1) String. Incorporate string for texture or for strings sake

2) No-Sew fabric

3) Sewn crepe paper streamer rosettes

Check out some of the great art and crafts I have created incorporating these three techniques. I will admit that the No-sew fabric technique was a big stretch for me. I really don’t do much with fabric so incorporating it into my tags and mixed media was really uhhh, dare I say, challenging? As was adding string at first. Neither string or fabric show up regularly in my art unless it is home décor or banner art. But now that I have the string technique only time will tell if it shows up in my art/crafts in the future.

I created a tag that was no-sew. Check it out this Tuesday as my Trish’s Tuesday Tag. I also incorporated string and fabric into an art journal page which I love in other peoples they just aren’t my natural go to mediums.

Post navigation

Trish

I am a creative soul. I love to create. decorate & celebrate. I live in a small, quirky townhome on a teeny-tiny lake in an L.A. suburb with my little guys and my big guy and a goldfish named Lightening.